Scottish TUSC conference called to prepare a 100% anti-austerity challenge for 2016

By Jim McFarlane 

The prospect of a continuing Tory assault on working-class people for another five years poses a stark challenge to all trade unionists and socialists.

The Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition (TUSC) put together the biggest left challenge to the main parties in the recent general election. TUSC stood 10 candidates in Scotland as well as a further 127 candidates across Wales and England.

The votes may have been modest at this stage but the response on the doorstep and in the streets was very positive to the idea of opposition to all cuts.

The Tories and their cheerleaders in the media have already laid out their plans. Abolition of the Human Rights Act, further restrictions on the rights of trade unionists to organise effectively to defend jobs and services by taking strike action. Further brutal cuts in benefits that the poor and vulnerable rely on just to exist are also in the firing line.

We can’t just sit back and wait until the Tories pass the legislation at Westminster before reacting. We can begin to discuss and organise the opposition that will be needed to take on the Tories, not just at the ballot box, but in the workplaces and communities that will suffer.

The Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition have called a conference open to all socialists, trade unionists, anti cuts campaigns and those fighting the attacks on benefits on Saturday 27th June.

The magnificent struggles of the hospital porters in Dundee, homeless caseworkers in Glasgow and the number of anti cuts campaigners give inspiring examples of what working class people need to do in the coming months and years. Those struggles have revived the traditions of workplace and community struggles taking on those in power and more than holding their own.

The conference will not just be a time to share experiences and ideas but it can also be a launch pad for the coming struggles. Lets use this opportunity to link up the existing struggles and prepare for what’s to come.

Working class people can’t just hope for the best from the SNP who claim to be anti austerity. At both Scottish government level and in numerous local councils they have passed on the Tory cuts without even a struggle. Do they continue to pass on the cuts or will they actually oppose the cuts in more than words?

The Scottish TUSC conference can prepare for a full slate of 100% anti austerity, socialist candidates for next years Scottish parliament elections. Unity across the left, built through workers struggles, can lay the basis for the building of a mass political party armed with a bold socialist programme to challenge not just the Tories but all political representatives of big business.

Build a 100% anti-austerity and socialist election challenge for May 2016

Saturday 27 June 1pm-4.30pm

Renfield – St Stephens Centre, Bath Street, Glasgow

Organised by Scottish TUSC www.tusc.org.uk